There are 11 currently vacant rooms above the station. When it was opened in 1851 the Station Master and his family lived upstairs and coal fires heated all the rooms. More recently it was rented out as a large flat until around 2010, when it was vacated. Network Rail who own the building, in conjunction with TfGM and Northern, now have ring-fenced funding to upgrade it to modern standards making it habitable again with a replacement kitchen and bathroom and wifi.
The building work is expected to be completed by early 2023, when rooms will rented out to several small businesses and there will also be facilities for hot-desking by the hour/day.
The Friends have been allocated one large room [number 10] for their meetings in perpetuity. Children’s Railway Safety lessons will be run from here using a demonstration OO train set, to educate local junior schoolchildren about the dangers on railways.
This room will also be used for local community groups who will book it on an hourly/ daily basis.
